Humanity and Survival in Elies Book - Essay Example

Humanity and Survival in Elie's Book

Introduction

It goes without saying that surviving instinct is embedded in every living thing. Once something or someone is introduced to the world, the mother nature way of life takes its course. It is because of the predetermined expectation that life brings on the table, which forces the survival nature of living things. Due to this, living things have no option but to adapt to their surroundings or face death. According to historical context, this is commonly referred to as natural selection. Those that remain alive are considered superior or can survive better in that surrounding. However, the dead are highlighted as weak or could not have made it hence eliminated. This is why survival skills are essential to all living things. They assist in providing basic necessities, supporting knowledge plus interactions, disaster situation survival, and the zeal to make it no matter the situation, among other examples. With this, it is essential to note that depending on one's environment; people acquire different sets of skills. More often than not, the skills used in a certain environment or area sometimes cannot apply in another. For instance, Asian or African survival skills are different from the Americans or Europeans. This is due to different climates, cultures, and so on. Additionally, similarities can be observed, which mostly borrow from knowledge and interaction.

Body

Nevertheless, this brings us to the subject matter as Elie Wiesel survived the camp horrors by employing these two entities and the zeal to push on. According to him, during the Holocaust, he lived a nightmare with his father. In addition, the author also stated that religion did not sustain him, and the Holocaust killed His God. However, his will to be by his father and his will to survive allowed him to stay alive at Elie's first residence. His will to survive can be depicted in the book when he wants to kill himself by throwing himself upon a barbed wire. He, however, does not proceed after saying a prayer to the dead and leaves the scene. The author does not explain to the readers why he cannot commit suicide, thus giving the impression that his survival commitment or human instinct kicked in.

Since somethings are already predetermined in life due to mother nature, there are things people cannot avoid to survive. For example, people need to eat and drink to survive. Failure to get food and water automatically eliminates them form this world. As a result, Elie was a feeble human being just like any other. In order to survive the horror era in the camp, he had saved a gold crown from a dishonest dentist and planned to use it to buy bread or life. After acquiring the crown, he took little interest in other things but not his daily stale bread crust and soup plate. In addition, the author states that he was a body, and bread plus soup were his whole life. This statement depicts how eating and drinking were crucial for Elie to survive in the camp. Without these two crucial survival entities, Wiesel could not have survived in the camp leave alone thriving to write his book.

Nonetheless, the writer gives the golden crown to Frenek, a Jew, after he beats his father for poor marching. Frenek wanted the gold crown, and since he knew Elie's weakest point was his father, he quickly exploited the advantage. It is at this juncture that the book highlights another reason which allowed Elie to survive in the camp. The fact that he gives the crown to Frenek shows how he genuinely loves and cares for his father. This love the two shared was life-sustaining as they could support each other in the camp. It is depicted in the book when Elie went up to his father, took his hand, and kissed it. There was a drop of tear that fell on his hand, but no one said anything as they had never understood each other so clearly. This demonstrates an empathetic pain sharing with one another. Sharing these problems or burdens that they experienced in the Auschwitz camp, truly allowed them to acquire the zeal needed to continue surviving no matter their situation.

Another thing that made Elie Wiesel survive in the camp was his devotion to his father. This can be highlighted when the Nazis arrived to purge people out of the camp. As a result, the author states through his thought plus actions that preserving or protecting his father's life is incalculable essential to him. Due to this, he manages to save his father several times. For instance, when the Nazi forces his father to among other weaklings who will be shot, Elie bravely accompanies him. In addition, he also incited chaos as a deception so that his father can escape. Moreover, when the Jews on the cattle car try to throw his father out of the car citing he is dead, Wiesel still never gives up on him. Elie slaps him as hard as he could to revive him hence saving his life. His determination still depicts that his zealousness was still the same level as it was in Auschwitz. This made the author not kill himself because he was certain that his father stood no chance of living without his help. Additionally, this can be supported in the book when the author stated that his father's presence was the only thing that prevented himself from taking his life. As a result, he had no right to allow himself to die lest his father will face the consequences. Ellie hereby understood that he was his father, only support, and lived so that he could also live. Due to this, he could not have stated that there was no more reason to live and struggle. In addition, this shows how Wiesel's father allowed him to courageously evacuate from Auschwitz due to his devotion.

After his father dies, Elie discovers a new reason for living, which is self-preservation. Though he discovered it later in the book, to the reader, he discovered it while in the camp without knowing. This can be highlighted by his little interest in other things but not eating and drinking his stale bread and soup, which is only natural. At the end of the book, he guiltily celebrates that his father is dead, which means more food ration for him. He stopped thinking of his parents that he started to dream of extra soup rations, and his desire was only to eat. This confirms how deep he was self-preserved from the start of the novel to the end. In return, this allowed him to survive in the camp for himself as well as his father.

Conclusion

The above-stated information depicts how survival is important to every living thing or humans. It also depicts different ways of surviving based on a certain environment. This is highlighted by the scenario that the author has depicted in the book as he sorts to survive at the Auschwitz camp with his father. It is essential to note that the writer mainly employs knowledge and interaction survival skills more than any other. Knowledge is depicted by his decision to understand why he needs to survive. This is highlighted when he tries to commit suicide but stops when he incites others so that his father can escape and when he gives Frenek the gold town to stop him from beating him, among other examples. Interaction is depicted by Elie's devotion to his father, his love, and his caring perspectives. Therefore, the essay confirms how the entities worked together by highlighting how Elie survived with his father at the Auschwitz camp despite the horrors.

2.

Introduction

Humanity is a complex entity that is characterized by basic altruism ethics originating from the human condition. In addition, it represents human love and compassion towards one another. Therefore, it differs from justice as there is an altruism level towards individuals encompassed in humanity more than justice fairness. This means that humanity, altruism, social intelligence, and acts of love are merely individual strengths, and fairness is uniformly expanded to all. Since humanity is based on the human condition, any individual can experience in different forms. For instance, it can present itself as oppression by taking away certain privileges or human rights. When this happens, the dehumanization card is played, which deprives full humanness to others, plus the cruelty and suffering that comes with it. As a result, any thoughts or actions that treat or make an individual look less human is a dehumanization instance. It is essential to note that this also highlights that dehumanization is due to unlawful, negligent leadership, and prejudicial act results.

Body

With this, dehumanization was most common in the 18th and 19th Centuries; thus, the main reason why Elie Wiesel could not protect themselves from it. Due to the horrifying pictures that were left in his mind, he shared his experience during the Holocaust era to record and create awareness of the ordeal.

The Holocaust was a mass genocide that claimed the lives of 6 million Jews from 1933 to 1945. In the book, Elie was a Hungarian Jew who was taken while he was 15 years old in 1944. Nonetheless, dehumanization was a powerful weapon that the Nazis used to tyrannize the Jews during the Holocaust period. Taking advantage of the good results it had on them, the Nazis gradually reduced the Jews to animals while dissolving their human being's feelings. The prolonged human rights violation continued to cause family separation and problematic relationships between family members. In return, this made the Jews lose faith, thus neutralizing their fighting spirit and increasing their pain. They, therefore, stood no chance against the Nazis.

When the fascists defeated the Hungarian government, the Nazi army started to take over Hungary. While doing this, they toiled to separate or dismantle families by segregating each Jew and imposed strict laws that deprived them of their citizenship rights. As a result, the Jews were pressured to move into small shacks while others were deported. After this saddening ordeal, the Nazis, with the assistance of the Hungarian police, shipped off the last or remaining Jews from Sighet to Auschwitz Camp. At this juncture, Wiesel tried to be sanguine, but his feeling changed when he saw his father crying. According to the author, he had never seen his father crying; hence did not think it was possible and immediately knew the situation was bad. His mother was walking beside them and wore a mask of no words and deep thoughts. The police were still lashing out with their clubs as they kept on forcing the Jews to move quickly. Elie becomes consumed with thoughts while walking to an unknown destination. When they reached Birkenau, an SS officer shouted men to the left side and women to the right side. The author reveals that he saw his sisters and mother adhering to the command within a fraction of a second.

Moreover, he saw them walking further away, not knowing that it was the last time he will ever see his sisters and mother again. This clearly shows how the families were separated. The why families were separated question is because the Nazis wanted to have an easy time in tyrannizing the Jew families. They did this by killing their faith and zeal to retaliate. If they did not dehumanize the Jews, there would be a huge probability that the book and history would have changed.

Jew's dehumanization effects can also be depicted by how the relationship between Elie and his father gradually fades in the book due to the brutality they faced. This can be depicted when they arrived at the concentration camp, and his father got struck by a Gypsy. The Gypsy still went on to slap his father that he fell and later got back on all his fours. Wiesel stood petrified on what happened before his eyes and could not speak but watch. His reaction even marvels him by stating that if it was the previous day, he would have dug his nails into the Gypsy flesh. Moreover, he was surprised his ideals changed very fast. His father guessed his thoughts, saying the slap did not hurt, which confirms how dehumanizing Jews, directly affected them mentally and emotionally.

Changing relationships is also highlighted in the book by how the prisoners behave in cattle cars when squeezed together. The author recalls that they barely got anything to eat, and when they did, it was not enough for the entire train car. This can be supported by an instance where a German workman had thrown some pieces of bread in the train car. One prisoner hid the bread under his shirt and, with lightning speed, put it in his mouth. Elie saw a shadow throwing itself over the man with stunning blows. The man was crying that the shadow who was his son was killing him, and he had the bread for both of them. However, the man died groaning, and the son searched him, took the bread, and began to eat it. Nobody cared about what had just happened. The son did not get far as there were two men watching the scuffle between the two. They jumped on him, and others joined in. After the struggle, two dead bodies of the father and the son were next to Elie. Dehumanizing the Jews created a horrible atmosphere in the camps as physical needs were upheld above other things hence resulting in family members or friends, killing one another for food or bread. This highlights that anyone did what they had to do to survive hence explaining why Jews lost their faith in God.

In the book, several characters tried to hold on their faith, but after experiencing the inhumanity, they lost it. Elie is one of them who losses faith when he sees children being burned after arriving in Auschwitz camp. Due to this, he believed whatever he will see next will corrupt his faith forever. On the return journey, the author had already surrendered his hope of being free and accepted that he was alone. This is highlighted by Elie asking God where He is, who can believe in this merciful God, and so on. Other believers also followed suit as it was something that highly affected them taking into consideration their mode of tyranny.

Conclusion

With reference to Elie Wiesel's book, it is clear that humanity is an essential virtue to all human beings. This is because it is characterized by compassion and love, which are important entities for any human being to have a healthy mental and emotional status. If this is eliminated, it becomes dehumanizing as the people are deprived of these human qualities that build their personality or make them who they are. In the book, there are numerous instances where the Jew dehumanization by the Nazi are depicted. This is from prisoners killing each other for food, Elie plus his father relationship fading, families being separated, beaten, and pushed to ghettos or deported. These are a few examples in the story that depicts the question of how dehumanization was done.

Nonetheless, all this was done to make the Jews feel inferior as compared to the Germans. It was also done to discourage them from planning a war resurgence as they were mentally, physically, and emotionally tormented with what they experienced. In other words, it was a method of oppressing and silencing the Jews completely so that the Nazis can have the upper hand. This brought negative effects among the people like killing each other, losing their faith in God, and serious discouragement, which increased their suffering, among other things. We should hereby learn from Elie Wiesel's experience to prevent a situation of this kind from happening in our lives. As a result, we should learn from our history to make the future a better place for all human beings.

Work Cited

Bloom, Harold, ed. Elie Wiesel's Night. Infobase Publishing, 2010.

Kilner, John F. Dignity and destiny: Humanity in the image of God. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2015.

Kleinbaum, David G., and Mitchel Klein. Survival analysis. Springer,, 2010.

Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. Special Materials Services, Manitoba Education, 2007.